GIZ African Union (AU)

About us

The African Union (AU) is the most important regional intergovernmental organization consisting of all 55 African states. It was founded in the South African city of Durban in 2002, as the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The AU Commission is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been supporting the AU on behalf of the German Government since 2004. The federal enterprise is actively engaged in about 20 supraregional projects that now embrace 33 African states: Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, the Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia.
 There are around 170 staff members that work at the GIZ AU main Office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and at a number of other locations, including Pretoria in South Africa, where, in particular, the projects supporting the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) are based. Other project locations include Tlemcen, Algeria, at the seat of the Pan African University’s Institute of Water and Energy Sciences (including Climate Change) and  Arusha, Tanzania, at the seat of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
GIZ supports the AU in its work to become more effective and to implement its strategies and programmes. It cooperates with seven of the eight AU departments, with a focus on the following five areas:
-  Peace and security
-  Good governance and migration
-  Regional economic integration
-  Education/youth/employment
-  Agriculture and land governance